Apparatus for heating railway-cars



I I a (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. S. ALSTON.

APPARATUS FOR HEATING RAILWAY CARS. No. 445,709 Patented Feb. 3-, 1891.

WITNESSES V INVENTEIFI n W. JMMQ/Jiw (No Mbdel.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

J. S. ALSTON. APPARATUS FOR HEATING RAILWAY CARS. N0. 445,709. Patented Feb. 3,1891.

FIG 4 WITNESSES N T UNITED STATES PATENT Prion.

JOHN S. ALSTON, OF DOVER, NEW JERSEY.

APPARATUS FOR HEATING RAiLWAY CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 445,709, dated February 3, 1891. Application filed August 19, 1890. serial No. 362,414. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN S. ALSTON, a citizen of the United States, residing in Dover, in the county of Ocean, and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Apparatus for Heating Railway-Oars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to utilizing the products of combustion of a locomotive-engine for heating air for warming a railway-train, whether the train is in motion, standing, or one or more cars are side-tracked, which is attained by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a locomotiveengine, part of its tender, and the sectional steam-drum. Fig. 2 is a side view of a part of the same tender and a passenger-car which has its side removed, showing the interior arrangement. Fig. 3 is a View of the top end of the pipe 1') and its back-pressure valve; and Fig. 4 is a vertical and end view of the l1ot-air-conducting pipe, hot-air-storage reservoir, escape-pipe, stop-cocks, and the petcock of the air-storage reservoir for immediate warming when the train has been just coupled to the locomotive or side-tracked. The car is shown in skeleton for exhibiting the relative position of the several parts.

Similar letters refer to similar two views.

A is a locomotive-engine, B its tender, and O a passenger-car. The wheels 0 are out off or shortened to show the piping.

D is an opening which communicates with a pump E of the locomotive by a pipe 6!, which is optionally laid between the shell of the boiler and its sheathing or passed through the boiler. (Shown by dotted lines, Fig. 1.)

F is an air-holder in the steam-dome G. A pipe b extends from the pump E to a coil 0 or other air-heating device in the spark-catcher (Z or smoke-box e, and thence to the air-holder F, which is tapped by another pipe f, passing the cab I-l under the tender B and entering a l1ot-air-storage reservoir 1, conveniently located on the inside and at one or both ends of each car. In this instance two are used.

parts in the An escape-pipe 9 extends from each through the top of the car, and a petcock 72v for immediate warming opens into the interior. From the reservoir I the pipe f extends the must be similarly supplied with a cock j; also,

the end of the pipe I), which leads into the airholder F, may be provided with a back-pressur'e valve 70 for shutting off the back-pressure against the pump. An escape-cock Z is suitably located'in the pipe f for hand-testing the air-blast.

It is the radiation of heat from the pipes that gives the useful effect, and it is only necessary to know what temperature is required. To that end an indicator m, in communication with the pipe f, indicates to the engineer the temperature of the hot-air blast, so that he can increase the speed of or slow down the pump.

In putting my invention into operation the first duty is to charge the system with air. This is done through the pump E. All the cooks are opened but the cooks j of the escape-pipes g, which are closed, with the exception of the last one of the train, they being open for the purpose of circulation. The

pump E is run merely fast enough to make a blast sufficient to overcome the friction of the heated air in the pipes f and flow just as rapidly as is required to make a good radiation and no cooling down. Air is drawn through the opening D and conducted by the pipe at to the pump and forced by it through the pipe b to the coil 0, where it is heated and carried to the air-holder. From the holder F the heated air flows through the pipe f into the storage and air reservoir I, thence along the same pipe within the car to the reservoir at its other end, and out at the bottom bend to the flexible connection and the following car, and so on until it reaches the end reservoir of the last car of a train, from which it is expelled through the pipe g.

As will be seen, the flow-pipe f is taken d'u rectly from the holder F in the steam-dome G and carried to the end of the train, when its heated air, after circulating through the air-reservoir of each car, is allowed to escape into the atmosphere by'means of the pipe g of the rear reservoir, whereby the circulation is perfected.

The air-reservoirs I are generally for storing heat for sid e-tracking a car of a train, and for heating a car, when the locomotive is first attached to a train, through the medium of the petcocks h, which are opened on the starting of the pump E for blowing heated air directly to the interior of a car without waiting for the slow process of radiation of the hot-air-conducting pipes. When a car is to be side-tracked--that is, taken out of atrain and run on a siding-there must be means to shut oif the outside circulation of air from the car and keep the heat in its system. This is done by providing the pipe f with the aforesaid stop-c'ocksi near the platforms orin the bends leading to the reservoirs, that the whole heating service contained in the car may be kept filled with heated air after it is cut out and side-tracked, for it .is necessary when a following train takes up that car so side-tracked it should be warm and ready for the occupancy by passengers.

I claim as my invention- V In an apparatus for heating railway-cars, the combination of a heating device in which the air is heated by theproducts of combus tion of a locomotive, a pump, hot-air-conducting pipes provided with regulating-cocks, hot-air reservoirs connecting with the hot-airconducting pipes, escape-pipes for thehot-air reservoirs, and a petcock for blowing heated air from each hot-air reservoir into its car without waiting for the conducting-pipes to heat sufiiciently for the purpose of radiation.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN S. ALSTON.

Witnesses MARTIN V. BERGEN, FRANCIS D. PASTORIUS. 

